Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a fund

The Federal Election Commission has provided matching funds to seven candidates for president, for a total of just under 19.3M. That compares to 15.4M doled out to six candidates at this point of the 2004 race. On the Democratic side, John Edwards (D-NC) is certified for 8.825M, Chris Dodd (D-CT) for 1.448M, Joe Biden (D-DE) for 857K and Dennis Kucinich for 100K. Republican recipients include John McCain (R-AZ) for 5.812M, Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who just announced he’s exiting the race, for 2.145M, and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) for 100K.RBR/TVBR observation: In this day and age, accepting FEC matching funds is almost an admission that you have abandoned hope of actually gaining your party’s nomination since it puts a ceiling on total spending. However, this time around both Edwards and McCain could make things interesting if certain things go their way. In Iowa, Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are battling it out for first place, but we hear that Edwards is almost every Democrats’ second choice. And McCain has been surging recently in New Hampshire.